A Perfect 10

Impressive grace? In his petulant insistence that it didn’t bother him?
If I didn’t think it were true, I might have been impressed by his cool reaction. The problem is, he doesn’t understand the gesture either in terms of the cultural insult or how this man is, this morning, the hero of thousands of demonstrators in Bagdad. But Bush sailes blithely on, untroubled by doubt or conscience. Or consciousness. See his “So what?” in response to Martha Raddatz pointing out that al Qaeda was not in Iraq prior to his invasion. An utterly loathsome human being.

When he gets back, will we have any opportunities to throw wadded-up 401(k) statements at him?

Boy that was quick. Flownover already won the thread.
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In the meantime, I predict that the shoe thrower will get a square in Baghdad named after him. And that there will be a statue with him in the motion of throwing and the shrub ducking.

You under-estimate the deep feelings that are being expressed by the shoe throwing incident. It sums up a view of Bush 43 that is widespread in the Arab World. This video will be local gold for a long time. The very act of ducking will show that an Arab forced the President of the United States to duck : ” incoming!”. The follow up interview with Martha Raddatz, who is a particularly thoughtful reporter shows that Bush has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. Dumbass 43: that is what he is.

I was impressed by the President’s reflexes and his grace under attack–he popped back up and stood his ground
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So the most important part of the incident was Bush’s physical form? You can’t figure out anything more decisive to say about this than “Bush is no hero in Iraq?”

“Let me talk about the guy throwing his shoe. It’s one way to gain attention [...]

“It’s a way for people to draw attention. I don’t know what the guy’s cause is. But one thing is for certain. He caused you to ask me a question about it.
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He really can’t comprehend anything beyond the scope of his tiny, tiny little mind and it’s hugely, hugely inflated sense of self-importance.

I don’t know what the guy’s cause is.
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It gets worse the more I think about it. The “guy” told you what his “cause is”, you repulsive simpleton. The hundreds of thousands of dead, mutilated, and the widows and orphans left in the wake of your ignorant, destructive narcissism.
He has no soul.

More on the Radditz interview, including some video: Bush On Al Qaeda Not Existing In Iraq Before Invasion: ‘So What?’

I’m still waiting for the MSM to touch on all the studies on Iraqi mortality. I know, I know, epidemiologists are all latte-swilling members of the D.F.H. contingent. The Kristols and David Brooks tell me so.

A pathetic quality to all this, no? Ducking and diving into and out of places we are liberating; ducking shoes; ducking Raddatz’s questions; ducking responsibility..it has been one long history of ducking.

wvng, years ago, Martin Short did a bit on SNL in which he portrayed a corporate PR guy challenged in a TV interview about unsafe/unsavory practices of his employer. The camera moved in to close-up as Short, rapidly puffing a cigarette, his eyes skittering around madly, would ask, “So? What’s your point?”
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Bush had that same look during the Radditz interview.
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I suspect for sometime that Bush has been aware that his record in Iraq is an abject failure, that he has trashed America’s reputation in the world and helped fuel anti-American hatred in the Middle East for decades to come. But he’s always been able to distance himself from it.
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But in one moment, before the cameras and before the world, the depth and misery of that failure and that hatred was brought to him face-to-face. Bush realized for the first time he couldn’t hide from his legacy. And yet he tries. ‘So what?” indeed.

Forget shoes– throw the book at Bush and his administration. Prosecution begins Jan 21st.

Bush said (in the Raddatz interview): ‘Clearly, one of the most important parts of my job because of 9/11 was to defend the security of the American people. There have been no attacks since I have been president, since 9/11.’
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Would someone please point out to this idiot that:
A) He was supposed be defending the country BEFORE the 9/11 attacks too — from the time he took office. He wasn’t supposed to go mountain biking after being warned that Bin Laden intended to attack. He wasn’t supposed to continue his vacation. He wasn’t supposed to ignore the warnings until after the attack.
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B)Since 9/11 over four thousand Americans (and untold tens of thousands of Iraqis) have died due to his incompetence.
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It amazes me that Bush still thinks he can take a victory lap.

It’s amazing to see the intensity Bush has for standing on principles he refuses to fully explore. It’s like he is incorruptibly ignorant.

Yeah it’s so lucky for Bush that Richard Reid wasn’t in the audience throwing the shoes at him.
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http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,203478,00.html

Coffee: incuriously unintellectual.

…and untold tens of thousands of Iraqis…

You can say hundreds of thousands.

Hollywood ending: The shoe actually hits Bush square in the forhead and knocks him out. Secret service and reporters run to his side, prop up his head and revive him. After a brief moment of silence he finally wakes up and speaks… “where am I?” Everyone soon learns that he CAN complete a sentence, and that the last 8 years have been a bad dream… It’s really only 2000 and Al Gore just won the election!!

It’s amazing to see the intensity Bush has for standing on principles he refuses to fully explore. It’s like he is incorruptibly ignorant.
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pourmecoffee, well said.

Coke and booze killed the part of his brain responsible for conscience, introspection and pronouncing the letter “s”.

A lot of people blame Bush’s simplistic analysis on religiosity, but I don’t buy that. I know a lot of deeply faithful people who think a great deal about issues. I may not agree with their conclusions, but I respect their thought process. There also people like Jerry Falwell, who I don’t respect, but who have clearly put a great deal of analysis into their positions. Bush is neither of these. He is more like the executive who mindlessly signs checks simply because it is check-signing time. This isn’t an intellectual horsepower issue, at least not entirely. No one would accuse Reagan of being a genius, but he was a pre-Alzheimer force to be reckoned with, and an inspiration to those ideologically inclined to be inspired. Watching him duck those shoes and what they represented seemed somehow emblematic of all this — it’s not that he passionately defends his actions; he’s just not really into it all that much.

dunedweller – like Dorothy or Bob Newhart. Would that it were so, for all of us.

Well, this looks like the answer to my question earlier this week. There will indeed be an indefinite American occupation, it will be justified by the need for parts, logistical support and “training” (like we’re gonna be training Iraqi A-10 pilots).

Or,at least, that’s the Washington Consensus. It will be interesting to see what euphemisms get rolled out in describing this occupation. And how close the force is to the 50,000 that fit into the bases, and that Cheney said would be the ultimate number, back in 2003, when the US was six months away from a drawdown to those levels.

Will we never learn?

pourmecoffee
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Can I recommend Matt Taibbi’s The Great Derangement?

@jay – Please do, and thanks. I will read it over the holidays while my Mom is complaining about her neighbor.

The neoconservatives who see Iraq as a bastion of freedom are, I think, deep in fantasyland…but that doesn’t necessarily mean Iraq will go over completely to the dark side, either.

Seeing as how freedom imposed of the outside is an oxymoron, one is forced to wonder what ‘the dark side’ refers to in this context. A nice illustration of the habit of assigning your own side the label of ‘good’ independent of the possibility that you might actually represent evil.

NOTE: JAY CARNEY LEAVES TIME MAG

Michael Calderone’s Blog: Carney leaves Time – Politico.com

from: [Managing editor] Rick Stengel

After twenty extraordinary years at TIME, Jay Carney is moving on to a new challenge. Jay has been pretty much everywhere for us. He started as Miami bureau chief and then became a correspondent in Moscow before landing in Washington and eventually becoming bureau chief. He was in Havana when Mikhail Gorbachev first visited in 1989; he was on the first plane of journalists into Panama for the U.S. invasion that same year; in 1991, he was at the television tower in Vilnius, Lithuania, when Soviet tanks rolled in, and in Red Square when they rolled again during the failed coup that led to the Soviet Union’s demise. On 9/11, he was aboard Air Force One with President Bush. He had two stints covering the White House and excelled in his coverage of the McCain 2000 campaign and of the Clinton impeachment. As a reporter and as bureau chief, he always fought for fairness and balance in our coverage whether it was of the left or the right. He is a superb journalist, an exemplary bureau chief and he also happens to be one of the pleasantest and most decent guys in our business. We wish him well in his new endeavors, which we will hear about shortly.

“NOTE: JAY CARNEY LEAVES TIME MAG”
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If you hadn’t said anything would anyone here have noticed?

I’d be curious to know if Carney’s departure is a sign of the times or a personal career move. An early buy out? Or a chance to be on the TeeVee and boost speaking fees?

How much do you want to bet that we will have a post up on Swampland about Jay Carney leaving before we have a post about the report from the Senate Armed Services Committee blaming Bush and Rumsfeld for the detainee abuses since we started the “War on Terror”?
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I am laying $20

Also, 20 years? Damm how old is Carney anyway?

I was first tempted to write “nothing to see here, move on”, but upon further review, I would agree with Jim Foolish Literalist that he, like journalistic paragon Ana Marie Cox, is following the money. He also is going to probably write some tell-all book (about his experiences at Time)in the process.
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If Carney is going how far behind is Scherer?

Matt Duss responds:

While I think this does have some significant implications, I think the idea that a US-Iraqi military partnership could lead to a US-Iraqi relationship “every bit as significant as Iraq’s fraternal Shi’ite ties with Iran” is pretty implausible.

He makes some additional points, but no one seems to notice that Iran and Iraq are neighbors with no reason to fight. Is there any reason to think that some country (besides the UK) would have a tighter relationship with Canada than the United States? (Conversely, is that a reasonable comparison?)

Haven’t been following the comments for a few days (i HATE grading final exams, FYI the Civil War was from 1930-1965, Abraham Lincoln was “a real stand up guy, he was the go to guy, if anyone needed anything they would talk to him” and Winston Churchill was the leader of the Puritans and the primary signatory of the Magna Carta…) but I wanted to emphasize sg’s point about the Abu Ghraib report. Check out Sullivan’s Daily Dish and this: http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=305735 for more info. People NEED to be talking about this rather than Blagojevich or whatever the shiny object of the day is. Anyone heard of anyone on the right attempting to muster a response to this?

Andy – Ana left for money? Where’s she getting money from? I sort of got the idea she was scrabbling for landing sites.

According to NPR, the Iraqis are more impressed by the guy who threw the shows than they are by Dubya’s “grace.”
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btw, I think there’s a difference between grace under pressure and willful indifference to the consequences of one’s actions. Kissinger showed the same kind of grace. So did Rummy.
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I suspect a lot of Americans want to do the same thing, except it would mean a one-way ticket to Gitmo without legal representation. Our good ole’ country, how proud I am.

So does Gonzo have some kinda think tank or foundation that Carney’s gonna go work for? Addition by subtraction.
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Jay Carney = Stephon Marbury

“…that doesn’t necessarily mean Iraq will go over completely to the dark side, either.”
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I see that Matt Duss has replied to this. It’s an interesting question. How many US forces will be permanently based in Iraq? And what’s the actual strategic threat from Iran, aside from the issue of nuclear weapons (not to minimize that)?

Jay is going to work for BIDEN.

“Outgoing newsmag bureau chief Jay Carney to be veep’s communications director.”

http://thepage.time.com/2008/12/15/biden-time/

“Joe Biden Communication Director” = “Paris Hilton Sexuality Director” — there’s a lot of it, but not necessarily all good.

Pourme: You just gave Fred Davis III (aka the Mastermind) an idea for his next commercial.

Yes, I agree that Shrub is a doofus of incalculable proportions, and we are right to castigate him, but, at the same time, a little introspection is required, as well. _WE_, unfortunately, voted – or allowed him to steal the vote – that insult to humanity into the most powerful elected office in the world. What efforts did _we_ take to get him out of power?

Jay is going to work for BIDEN.

“Outgoing newsmag bureau chief Jay Carney to be veep’s communications director.”
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I gotta be honest, did not see that coming. Weird.

Color me genuinely surprised. I hope Jay is home practicing different ways of phrasing “What the Vice President meant was….” (I kid because I love, Biden’s good people).

Not wantint to give Halperins a page view, I’ll take your word for it. I did not see that coming either. Carney’s a Republican. Go figger.